When I saw the sign in the hotel lobby advertising a special on chocolate pedicures, I have to admit I was excited yet scared, intrigued but worried. It sounded great (and delicious!), but I’ve always kind of hated showing my feet in public – and I had never had a pedicure before. Ever.

Would this end up being an enjoyable adventure or just painful and kind of embarrassing? Well, I bit the bullet and signed up and… it was one of the best foot experiences I’ve ever had! In fact, I really need to try to figure out how to work pedicures into my monthly budget from now on.

As mentioned in my post yesterday, I spent 4 nights starting last Thursday at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld, which was the hosting hotel for a medical conference I was sent to cover there in Florida.

Throughout my running around to sessions and presentations, I kept passing that sign talking about chocolate pedicures being offered in the hotel spa. And by the end of my conference, when my feet were REALLY starting to hurt, I began to seriously consider checking this out.

The spa inside the Renaissance hotel

But as mentioned earlier, I don’t like my feet, hate showing them in public, only wear sandals at home, and only wear flip-flops for short steps to a pool. My home-based “pedicures” never turn out looking right and frankly I just find it easier to cover up my feet with cute shoes. Although my friends have always pushed the wonderful benefits of a professional pedicure, I was never that interested. That is until some genius thought to add the word “chocolate” to the description.

The Moroccan Crème Brulee Chocolate Pedicure at Nèu Lotus Spa at the Renaissance hotel was advertised for $60 (plus tip). But a small mishap with my hotel room door led to a further discount — the battery for the door’s locking mechanism went out, ending with the manager, someone from maintenance, and someone from engineering needing to be called.

Although that whole incident took a while, everyone was very apologetic and the manager even offered me a $25 discount for the pedicure to help make up for my inconvenience. So I had to do it!

Here now are the step-by-step pics to this 50 minute process that left me with very happy feet:

1) The first step was a “foot rejuvenation” with a milky Moroccan cream and baby powder concoction added to a hot (too hot at first!) bubbling foot soaker.

Let’s get this pedi started!

2) Next came toenail filing and cuticle pushing (ouch!) I told the pedicurist right before she started, “Here comes the painful part.” But she replied, “No, none of this hurts. It’s all just relaxing.” She lied. But it was a necessary evil to get to the better parts.

A little filing…

…and a little prodding

3) After a quick foot massage with a creamy lotion, it was time for heel buffing. Now, I’m crazy ticklish on my feet and shared this information. Still, I think the lady was shocked when just after she started, I burst into squeals of laughter and jumped right out of my chair. From that point on, I just dug my fingernails into the arm rests and tried to act like an adult. NECESSARY EVIL!

That tickles!

4) The next step was applying an orange scrub to the feet and legs. This was a “Moroccanoil Body Buff” exfoliant and had a heavy, wonderful smell — like one of those candies that look like an orange made out of chocolate. Ahhh, now we’re getting to the good stuff!

Moroccanoil orange scrub in the jar…

…and applied to my feet and legs.

5) After washing off the orange scrub, my feet and calves were gently massaged with the FarmHouse Fresh (FHF) Sweet Cream Body Milk Lotion, which says it’s “infused with vitamin E-rich sweet almond oil.”6) Then it was time to bring on the chocolate! The fantastic smelling FHF Sundae Best chocolate softening mask was liberally applied to both legs, which were then wrapped tightly in warm towels. By now, the smell of orange and cream and chocolate was making me very hungry.

We have chocolate!

My legs smell DELICICIOUS! Is that weird??

7) While the towels were still on, the pedicurist then applied a layer of clear nail polish and then the bright lavender-pink color I picked out earlier. After the polish dried, all that was left was a quick washing off of the chocolate and then payment.
By the end, I was relaxed as a noodle and all but asking strangers to admire my dressed up toes. I also caught whiffs of chocolate for the rest of the day, which kept me smiling.

All done

Would I go through this process again? Heck, yeah! And I’d recommend it to anyone else who is vacationing in the Orlando area. Now that I’m back home, I guess I’ll just have to start paying for simpler pedicures from now on. (Or order my own products from Moroccanoils or FHF.)

After all, I have tons of barely worn sandals and the newly discovered ability to have cute toes. Bring on summer!!

I didn’t really see a lot of mentions of it online — at least in this particular combination. I’m planning on pushing the concept on the local spa here. Would love it if they’d start offering something like this (although it might make me go broke!)

Okay, you convinced me. I carry around the same reservations about pedicures as you previously had but, I’ve been nurturing them far longer than you so it required a good deal of convincing. I sincerely hope I can find the seriously satisfying experience you had with your first pedicure. By the way, hiding your feet all these years is like putting your candle under a basket…your feet look good…bare them…pun intended.